The night of Thursday 26th of November 2009 was a very special night indeed for all involved with Ideal Schools.

Part of the highly successful ICB International Conference involved an awards dinner where we received the ICB Tuition Provider of the Year award and one of our students, Shirley Atterbury, won the Student of the Year award.

Having been involved in distance learning for nearly 40 years, the last 27 as Director and Principal of Ideal Schools, I can state that this was one of my proudest moments. Every department in Ideal Schools works extremely hard to ensure that all courses and services run as smoothly as possible, and this award gives all those involved recognition of their hard work. A huge credit also goes to our students as they continually perform well above average in all examinations.

The story of Shirley Atterbury is one that should inspire us all. In spite of a serious illness, Shirley used her studies to help her through her treatment, and still managed distinction passes. It was a pleasure to meet her at the dinner, and I don’t think anyone could argue that her award was fully deserved.

I would also like to mention another of our students, Anna Reed, who was another Student of the Year nominee. To be one of the five finalists is something that she should be very proud of.

A special thanks has to go to the ICB who have provided the platform for our students to achieve their goals. The range of qualifications and accessibility of examinations help to make the overall learning experience a pleasant one for our students. The two-day conference has been hailed a great success and all our students who were in attendance found the seminars extremely helpful.

Finally, I would like to stress that although this award proves that our overall products and services are of the highest quality, we will not rest on our laurels. 2010 will see an introduction of new course modules, and we are currently exploring areas that will further improve our tuition provision.

We all look forward to the following year in the hope that we will guide many, many more students successfully through their examinations.

Yours faithfully

Al Vanden Akker
Principal